Recent advances in electro-optics and lasers have facilitated extensive developments in the field of laser hardening components protecting, for example, opto-electronic sensors such as focal plane arrays (FPAs), CCD (charge-coupled device) cameras, imagers, and detectors. Passive filters typically include different thin planar windows that are fabricated from precisely formulated binary and ternary semiconductors. Among these are mercury cadmium telluride (MCT or HgCdTe) and/or gallium indium arsenide (GaInAs) family materials. These types of filters may be suitable for use with infrared sensor devices. These semiconductors transmit mid-infrared signals, having a wavelength often exceeding about 2.5 microns (μm), and block radiation having a wavelength below about 2 microns (μm). The transmission of operational signals through a one millimeter (mm) thick window typically varies from about 40% to about 50%, depending on the crystal/alloy formulation. The absorptive and scattering properties of these filters remain constant over operations with all types of optical signals, including both continuous wave and pulsed signals. The combination of limited optical transmission associated with semiconductor planar windows (less than 50%) with wavefront errors aggravate the detection and reduce the quality of the obtained and processed information. Furthermore, these filters may be relatively expensive due to the sophisticated micro-metallurgical processing and relatively limited yield (about 10-15%).